Chinook stiffened, and then his head toppled forward, falling off his body and bouncing once before rolling onto one of the green rugs. His body sagged, slumping toward me as blood gushed out of his severed neck.
Rage yanked me close, out of the trajectory of the beheaded selkie, but it was too late. I was covered in blood.
Holy Mother of Mages. The king didn’t mess around with his punishments.
“There’s no place in my herd for a self-aggrandizing jackass who can’t follow orders,” the king muttered. He wiped the blade on his pants and then held it out to Steele. “Your blade.”
Steele swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he took the blade.
“Now, where were we?” the king asked as he ascended his throne. He sat and then turned his attention to Rage and me.
Rage met the king’s gaze, and I could see the vein pulse in my mate’s neck as he lowered his head in respect to the man. All right. So this was happening. I followed his lead, glancing out of the corner of my eye to see when Rage lifted his head.
King Ozark looked at Rage with a grin. “Are you indeed the first heir?”
“I am Courage Midnight.” Rage licked his lips and then pointed at me. “And this is my fated mate, Nai Crescent.”
“How lovely.” King Ozark turned to Steele. “Kill them and send their heads to the alpha king.” He issued the command and then glanced down as if to inspect something on his lap.
Wait.What?
Steele turned toward us and pulled his blade as Rage yelled. “Wait!”
The king looked at him with a raised eyebrow and thenrolled his eyes. “Let me guess: let you go, and you’ll give me useless gold”—he narrowed his eyes—“or a false promise of reuniting our races and allowing the island to become Shifter Island once again? I’ve heard these lies all before. Your people donothingbut lie.”
Fur rippled down Rage’s arms. Was he going to shift—oh, right, the magic powder … that canceled magic.
My mate stepped forward. “Let me go, and I’ll give you the current alpha king’s head,andas first heir, I’ll become alpha king. Then I will have the power to reunite the shifter races on the island once again. This I swear on my father’sgrave.”
Whoa.
The king cocked his head and narrowed his eyes as he leaned forward. “You’d kill your own uncle?”
“Absolutely,” Rage said without hesitation. “He’s a monster. I don’t align with his beliefs—now that I better understand them. I’ll do what’s best for my people, and that’s to stop this war between our races.”
Holy mage. Rage was going to fight for the alpha spot early? Pride and fear wrestled inside of me, churning my gut.
The king straightened, crossing his arms over his jacked-up chest. “Would you swear it? In a binding?”
Rage went very still before nodding once. “You have my word. Let me and my mate go and I will bring you the king’s head.”
‘Rage, what’s a binding?’
“Fetch the mage,” the king told Melody, who scurried off at his word.
‘Rage,’I pressed my mate.
He sighed.‘It’s a magical agreement I can’t back out of. Similar to the one you took with Surlama to give her monthly blood donations.’
Oh…
Oh!I remembered Surlama laughing and saying something about a curse falling upon me and my children—or was it that I wouldn’t have children? Either way, she’d promised bad things would happen if I didn’t fulfill my promise. Which reminded me … when was the next full moon? Definitely had to kill Surlama before then.
Kill Surlama.
Bring back Honor.
Get the alpha king’s head.
